Intel 845E Motherboard Roundup - August 2002

Tyan S2099GNNR

By far, the Tyan S2099GNNR is one of the most feature-filled Pentium 4 motherboard we've ever come across. Tyan integrates just about everything imaginable; 1394a FireWire is the only feature this board doesn't have.

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To start out with, Tyan integrates an onboard ATI Rage XP graphics chip. Clearly this is not meant for serious (or even semi-serious) gamers, but Tyan is marketing this board as an all-in-one solution for the corporate sector (as a server platform), so it's no surprise they didn't choose a more powerful integrated video chip. There is still an AGP 4X slot should the need for better graphics ever arise.

Tyan also decided to integrate an ATA133 Promise RAID chip supporting RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) arrays. Also, you have as much as 4 IDE channels to choose from.

As we mentioned before, an interesting addition to the board design is the inclusion of 4 DIMM slots instead of 2 or 3. We can only see a select, niche market going after boards specifically because of 4 DIMM slots. And once again, remember that the limitations of the 845E MCH determine how you can populate those DIMM slots (e.g. you can only install 2 double sided DIMMs or 4 single sided DIMMs).

Some other nice features are the inclusion of two LAN ports in the form of one standard 10/100 Ethernet port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Adding Gigabit to the mix is a predictable move on Tyan's part, as corporate and business clients are going to want the fastest network possible. With Gigabit networks, you get just that, safe and speedy (but expensive) networks. One possible use is a Gigabit connection to a backend database server while the 10/100 port is used for an external LAN.

To round out the feature-list, Tyan adds support for up to 6 USB 2.0 ports and room for expansion with 5 PCI slots.

Stressing the S2099GNNR

We started off stressmarking this board with our usual Prime95 torture tests. 24 hours later we were unable to detect any signs of instability. The same song and dance was repeated when we lowered the memory timings and filled all 4 DIMMs up with memory. We're happy to report that the GNNR was rock solid during the entire procedure.

If you're looking for this board to be an overclocker however, you're going to be disappointed. The GNNR is only capable of as high as 165MHz FSB, which isn't terrible, but still not great for serious overclockers. Additionally, VDIMM adjustments only go as high as 2.65V and you're only able to fool with Vcore up to 1.575V. The real nail in the coffin for overclockers that are interested in the GNNR is the lack of an AGP/PCI lock. Granted, this board is far from aimed at the enthusiast market so these issues don't really apply.

The street price for the Tyan S2099GNNR is supposed to be pricey (although that's to be expected), coming in at around $185 in the U.S. depending on your location.